Exploitation charges dropped against firefighter

Expert: Child porn on firefighterÂ?s computer came from malicious software.

Expert: Child porn on firefighterÂ?s computer came from malicious software.

June 14, 2006|By STAN MADDUX Tribune Correspondent

LAPORTE Â? A LaPorte firefighter was the victim of cyberspace pirates sending child pornography into his office computer without his knowledge.

That's according to LaPorte attorney Michael Drayton, who mounted a successful defense in the case.

Â?We proved he was innocent. That's the long and short of it,Â? said Drayton.

A charge of Class C felony child exploitation has been dropped against Phillip Logan, a longtime member of the LaPorte Fire Department when arrested in July 2003.

At the time, Logan, 57, of the 1200 block of West County Road 300 North was eligible to retire, an option he exercised soon after being charged.

Under an agreement reached with the LaPorte County prosecutor's office, a Class D felony charge of possession of child pornography was also downgraded to a Class A misdemeanor.

That charge will be dismissed if Logan does not commit any criminal offense within the next six months, according to the agreement to dismiss charges signed May 5 by LaPorte Circuit Court Judge Robert Gilmore.

Nearly three years ago, a service technician went to the fire station at 809 W. 18th St. to fix some type of problem with Logan's office computer.

The repairman during his examination noticed on the computer a picture of two small girls sitting naked on a chair, according to findings of a police investigation on file in LaPorte Circuit Court.

The service technician contacted then Fire Chief Greg Smith, who authorized a forensic examination of the computer hard drive.

Discovered on the hard drive were 27 images of naked children, according to court documents.

When questioned by police, Logan said he frequently visited adult Web sites and enjoys naked females, according to court documents.

He also said he visited child porn sites but not intentionally and did not recall downloading from those sites.

Drayton said he brought in one of the nation's top forsenic computer specialists to dissect the hard drive.

The expert was able to show the nude images of children were delivered to Logan's office data base through viruses and various outside sources.

Â?He showed any materials that appeared on the computer got there without the operator of the computer even knowing it.Â?

Specifically, Logan's hard drive contained two or more Trojan horses, usually released to gain control of other people's computers and tap into their data base records, Drayton said.

There were also numerous viruses redirecting Logan and anyone else who might have used the computer to child pornography Web sites.

Some of those sites don't appear on monitors unless users happen to scroll down on their computer screens far enough to notice the images, he said.

Also on the hard drive were malicious dialers that automatically direct users to a particular Web site once they log on.

Â?Everytime he was on line that computer was a sitting duck for anything on the Internet,Â? Drayton said.